What is Going on in New Hampshire Public Schools?

In response to recent shocking occurrences in education, House Education Policy and Administration Vice-Chair Kristin Noble released the following statement:

“What is going on in New Hampshire Public Schools? We aren’t even halfway through the week and we’ve seen failure after failure stemming from egregious mismanagement, all of which are putting students and teachers second. School administrators can’t keep their budgets balanced or their school doors open without catastrophe,” said Noble.

In just the span of four days, we have learned that,

• A Pinkerton Academy student has filed a sexual assault lawsuit against the school and it’s former security guard.

• The Chair of the Claremont School Board Committee is calling for criminal investigations into the school’s blatant fiscal mismanagement.

• A Claremont Elementary school is facing potential closure because of their failure to deliver special education services.

• A Hooksett Schools paraprofessional was arrested for 12 counts of child pornography.

• The Claremont Curriculum Coordinator, Richard Elliott, resigned after documents revealed that he engaged in severe and pervasive sexual harassment at his former position at Fall Mountain Regional High School in Langdon.

• Claremont Business Administrator, Mary Henry, who was forced out of Fall Mountain and Hillsboro-Deering after audits flagged serious record keeping problems, continues her paid administrative leave, collecting her $135,393 a year salary on the back of local taxpayers.

• A Governor Wentworth School district former Director of Athletics reported low staff morale, high turnover rates, dysfunction, dishonesty, and intimidation within the district since the arrival of their current superintendent.

• The National Assessment of Educational Progress found that high school seniors had the worst reading scores since 1992 and the worst mathematics scores since 2005.

Noble continued, “Student proficiency and academic achievement are suffering because of administrators’ inability to deliver in even the most basic functions of their job. It is no wonder why parents are pulling their children out of public schools to take advantage of the wildly successful Education Freedom Account Program and any other educational pathways that they can find. If administrators are going to continue in their repeated pattern of failure, we will have no choice but to deliver major changes and reforms to save Granite State students.”